Fairkom

What Fairkom does

Fairkom is an Austrian non-profit, founded in 1994 as PUBLIC VOICE Labor and headquartered in Dornbirn, that provides open-source IT consulting and a portfolio of privacy-friendly cloud communication services under the fairapps brand. The platform bundles video conferencing (fairmeeting on Jitsi Meet and fairteaching on BigBlueButton), cloud storage and collaboration (faircloud on Nextcloud with Collabora Online), decentralized messaging (fairchat [matrix] on the Matrix protocol), single sign-on identity management (fairlogin on Keycloak), peer-to-peer video streaming (fair.tube on PeerTube), and shared whiteboards (board.net on Etherpad), with infrastructure hosted on Kubernetes clusters in Germany and Austria.

The company operates a multi-channel go-to-market combining a self-serve fairapps.net platform and shop.fairkom.net store, framework agreement distribution through DFN for German research institutions and BBG for the Austrian public sector (via partner Softcom), and direct enterprise sales for white-label, on-premise, and consulting engagements. Primary customer segments are education and research (including K-12 messenger deployments serving hundreds of thousands of users), public administration at federal and state level, NGOs and civil society, and enterprises needing sovereign EU cloud alternatives.

Revenue is generated through recurring subscriptions for fairmeeting/fairteaching/faircloud/fairchat, managed hosting of Matrix and other open-source solutions, IT consulting and implementation services, and white-label branding arrangements. Fairkom emphasizes GDPR compliance, cookie-free operations, EU data residency, and digital sovereignty as its positioning against US BigTech providers such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace.

Name

Fairkom

Legal name

fairkom

Website

https://fairkom.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fairkom is an Austrian non-profit providing open-source, GDPR-compliant cloud communication services — video conferencing, cloud storage, messaging, and SSO — to European education, public administration, and enterprise customers via its fairapps platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Dornbirn

HQ country

Austria

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription-based Video Conferencing: fairmeeting and fairteaching offered as subscription packages (fairmeeting.net donation-based for private use, pro.fairmeeting.net with subscription). Fair-use packages for education combine organizer numbers with student quotas. DFN framework agreement direct ordering for research institutions.
2. Cloud Storage & Collaboration Services: faircloud (based on Nextcloud) provides file storage, synchronization, and collaboration tools. Packages available through shop with storage extensions. 200MB free for testing with fairlogin account.
3. Managed Services & Hosting: Hosting of Matrix servers, Rocket.Chat instances, and other open-source solutions on fairkom infrastructure. Includes managed Kubernetes deployments, on-premise installations, and ongoing support.
4. IT Consulting & Implementation: Consulting services for open-source software selection, integration, and implementation. Covers analysis, customization, programming, deployment, and operational support. Partners with organizations in public administration, education, and civil society.
5. White Label Solutions: Branded versions of fairmeeting, fairteaching, fairchat, and other services available for organizations wanting to offer these under their own brand with CI customization, user management, and custom domains.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Fairkom provides a portfolio of GDPR-compliant, EU-hosted open source cloud communication and collaboration services through its fairapps platform, including video conferencing (fairmeeting, fairteaching), cloud storage (faircloud), messaging (fairchat), Single Sign-On (fairlogin), video streaming (fair.tube), and collaborative whiteboards (board.net). The company also delivers IT consulting, white-label solutions, on-premise deployments, and managed hosting for organizations in education, public administration, research, and civil society.

Product overview

Fairkom operates the fairapps platform, a unified portfolio of privacy-friendly open source cloud services providing digital alternatives to BigTech. The platform consists of video conferencing solutions (fairmeeting based on Jitsi Meet and fairteaching based on BigBlueButton), cloud storage (faircloud based on Nextcloud with Collabora document editing), and communication tools (fairchat [matrix] based on the Matrix protocol, with fairchat legacy on Rocket.Chat being phased out). Central to the offering is fairlogin, a Single Sign-On identity management system based on Keycloak that provides unified access across all services. Additional services include fair.tube (PeerTube-based video streaming), board.net (Etherpad collaborative writing), and fairtranslate. Fairkom also offers IT consulting, white label services, and maintains partnerships with Rocket.Chat. The company emphasizes GDPR compliance, EU-hosted servers, and digital sovereignty.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• fairapps: Portfolio platform containing all Fairkom cloud services including fairmeeting, fairteaching, faircloud, fairchat, fairlogin, and more.
• fairmeeting
• fairteaching
• faircloud
• fairchat [matrix]
• fairlogin
• fair.tube
• board.net
• fairblue

Products and services

• fairmeeting Video conferencing solution based on Jitsi Meet for team meetings and spontaneous conversations; supports chat, shared notes, breakout rooms, interactive gestures, virtual backgrounds, and recording. Used by individuals, education, and enterprises.
• fairteaching Video conferencing solution based on BigBlueButton for webinars, lectures, classes, and workshops; features shared whiteboard, breakout rooms, role management, and reactions. Used by educational institutions and trainers.
• faircloud Privacy-compliant cloud storage and collaboration platform based on Nextcloud for file storage, calendar/contacts synchronization, and collaborative document editing (with Collabora Online). Used by organizations and individuals needing GDPR-compliant file sync.
• fairchat [matrix] Messenger service based on the open Matrix protocol for decentralized real-time communication, with Element and FluffyChat client support and LDAP/IDM integration for mapping organizational structures.
• fairlogin Single Sign-On (SSO) identity management system based on Keycloak providing unified authentication across all fairapps services, with federation via GEANT/eduGain and direct SAML/OIDC connections.
• fair.tube Video and streaming platform based on PeerTube with peer-to-peer transmission for energy-efficient video sharing and live event broadcasting.
• board.net Collaborative online whiteboard based on Etherpad for shared note-taking, planning, and real-time document collaboration with a single URL access.
• fairtranslate Translation service enabling text or file translation into 15 languages.
• TERMINO GDPR-compliant scheduling assistant developed by Fairkom for Austrian public administration, also available as DFN Terminplaner for academic institutions.
• White-Label Communication Solutions Branded versions of fairmeeting, fairteaching, fairchat and related services available for organizations wanting to offer these under their own brand with CI customization, user management, and custom domains.
• Open Source IT Consulting Consulting services covering analysis, customization, programming, deployment, and operational support for open-source software selection, integration, and implementation. Partners with organizations in public administration, education, and civil society.

Quantifiable outcome

• Scalable to 1000+ participants per video conference room
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Rocket.ChatcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 August 2019Fairkom is the first official European partner of Rocket.Chat. The partnership involves extending and further developing Rocket.Chat applications to meet demand for simple, fast, and direct communication. Fairkom focuses on strict EU data protection (GDPR) compliance and provides on-site support for Rocket.Chat customers in Europe.
• German Research Network (DFN)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFairkom is a DFN framework agreement partner enabling member institutions to order fairmeeting video conferencing services directly via EVB-IT service contract without competitive bidding. This streamlines procurement for universities and research institutions.
• ACOnetcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerService agreement with ACOnet (DFN sister organization) enables federation via GEANT/eduGain for single sign-on access from any university or research institution account to fairapps services.
• Collective for Interpreters [bla]minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on fairblue interpretation feature development for BigBlueButton, working together on BBB3.0 specification.
• SoftcomminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership with Softcom enables BBG (Bundesbeschaffungs GmbH) listing, allowing Austrian public sector organizations to access fairkom services through government procurement channels.
• osAllianceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with osAlliance on enterprise chat solutions and consulting projects, exploring third-generation chat services for the enterprise environment.
• Matrix.org FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFairkom is a Silver Sponsor of the Matrix.org Foundation, supporting the open decentralized communication protocol. Fairkom actively contributes to Matrix ecosystem development and participates in Matrix Conference.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Rocket.Chat: Open-source team chat platform. Fairkom was Rocket.Chat's first European partner, hosted and customized it, and is now migrating customers to Matrix; products overlap directly in team communications.
• Open-Xchange: Provider of open-source email, collaboration, and DNS services used by many European ISPs and telcos. Comparable target buyer (European service providers and public sector) and overlapping product surface.
• Nextcloud GmbH: Germany-based provider of the Nextcloud collaboration platform that Fairkom packages as faircloud. Direct competitor and overlapping target market in EU public sector and education buyers seeking sovereign file-sync and collaboration.
• Wire Swiss GmbH: Swiss end-to-end-encrypted messaging and conferencing provider. Comparable European sovereign alternative serving regulated enterprises and public-sector buyers.
• Univention: German provider of UCS identity and IT management used by schools and public administrations. Comparable go-to-market in EU K-12 and public-sector identity and collaboration, including Keycloak-adjacent capabilities.
• Threema: Swiss secure-messaging provider popular with German public-sector and healthcare buyers. Comparable privacy-first positioning and EU data residency story.
• Element (New Vector): Vendor behind the Element Matrix client and Matrix.org commercial services. Direct peer in federated, GDPR-aligned messaging targeting the same enterprise and public-sector buyers.
• BigBlueButton (Blindside Networks): Upstream developer of BigBlueButton, the video-conferencing platform Fairkom re-skins as fairteaching. Competes for the same online-learning and webinar workload in education.
• ownCloud: Open-source file-sync and collaboration vendor. Directly comparable in sovereign cloud-storage offerings to enterprises and regulated buyers.

Broad incumbents

• Jitsi (8x8): Upstream of fairmeeting and a much larger commercial video-conferencing provider through 8x8. Competes for the same browser-based, no-install video-conferencing use case at a very different scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xfairmove.net/@fairkom
• GitHubgit.fairkom.net/hosting
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fairkom

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fairkom